Body-worn cameras provide ‘eagle eye’ to state police

The state police have procured state-of-the-art body-worn cameras as part of the efforts to further strengthen policing through effective employment of cutting edge technology.

A civil police officer wearing the new body-worn camera of Kerala Police in front of Police Headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram | Manu R Mavelil

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state police have procured state-of-the-art body-worn cameras as part of the efforts to further strengthen policing through effective employment of cutting edge technology.
DGP Loknath Behera on Friday  fitted the device on select police personnel at the Kerala Police Headquarters here to signal the hi-tech programme’s take-off.

Senior officers said after the Delhi and Rajasthan Police, Kerala Police are only the third state police force in the country to go in for the body-worn cameras. Behera said initially the cameras will be used to man traffic effectively.

Later, the use of body-worn cameras will be extended to other wings of the police.  In the first phase, 25 cameras have been introduced each in Thiruvananthapuram City police and Kochi City police limits.
The small handy device can be fixed on the collars or the belts of the uniforms. “The cameras will be used for effective traffic management and later extended to the other  police wings. We want to implement it in all the police stations,” Behera said.

He said the cameras could be useful in criminal investigation, law and order and house search purposes since it will ensure probity in the police’s functioning.

“There have been growing calls from the civil society to procure these cameras for use in policing as there have been several incidents relating to police personnel’s behaviour conduct during vehicle checks and law and order maintenance. Hence, we decided to go in for the cameras since I  will be able to view the recorded footage of the incident on my computer,” Behera said.

The DGP also said the body-worn cams will be used  during the upcoming Makaravilakku festival at Sabarimala.

V Suresh Kumar, ACP, City Police Control Room, said the cameras will be controlled by the main control unit functioning at the Police Control Room(PCR).

“A decoding unit has been set up at the PCR to enable the recorded footage to be downloaded onto the computer. So we will soon start using it during vehicle checking,” the ACP said.

Key features

• Live streaming of visuals
• A touchscreen monitor for changing the settings and for sending messages and photos
• Infra-Red facility for night vision
• 4th generation sim- controlled system
• 8 hours of battery back-up
• 32 GB inbound memory
• Can take video recordings and snaps
• Can be used as wireless sets for internal communication
• Can send text messages

Police protection and surveillance
Kerala Police is the third state police force in the country to bring in body-worn cameras
Initially, the cameras will be used to man traffic
The use of the cameras will be later extended to other wings of the police
In the first phase, 25 cameras have been introduced each in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi cities